Check Configuration Item Exports for Relations

The configuration items export files now have an extra column.  This column is called ‘Has CI Relations’.  It indicates whether a configuration item (CI) is related to any other CIs.  This column was added to make it easier for developers to use the data in the Xurrent CMDB as the source used to automate the maintenance of CI relations in other systems.

Now that this column is included, these export files can be compared on a daily or hourly basis to check whether a CI’s relations have been removed.

In the past, it was not possible to perform an export of the CI relations that were updated in, let’s say, the past 24 hours to check whether a CI’s relations were removed.  That’s because CIs without relations are not included in a CI relations export file.

Also, if all CIs that were updated in the past 24 hours were exported, it would not be possible to see if a CI’s relations were removed, as the relations are not included in a configuration items export file.  That’s because the CI relations are separate records that include the relation type.

Because the ‘Has CI Relations’ column will have changed from ‘TRUE’ to empty after all the relations of a CI have been removed, it is now relatively easy for an automated script to figure out that the CI’s relations also need to be removed in the other system.